Watch Hill Alisos Canyon

About the Wine

Our Clairette comes from the Watch Hill vineyard in the Alisos Canyon AVA, within Santa Barbara County. The vineyard is CCOF Certified Organic and experiences a relatively cool climate due to ingress of marine winds along the San Antonio Creek Valley (Winkler Climate Zone 2). The soil is high calcium shale and weathered sandstone with limestone streak along the corridor of the AVA. Harvest is typically early October. We hand pick in the early morning and target brix in the low 20's. We whole cluster press the grapes into neutral French oak barrels. We use non-saccharomyces starter yeast into native fermentation to finish primary. Malolactic fermentation completes and age sur lie for 15 months with lie stirring during first 3 months. Minimal SO2 used during aging and prior to bottling.